With Warwickshire seeking to win to keep their faint hopes of snatching the title from under the noses of Surrey, and the visitors simply needing to avoid defeat in their last three matches to clinch the championship, it was Adam Hollioake’s men that played the bolder cricket at Edgbaston yesterday.

Built around three fifty partnerships, yet none of any greater substance, the home side’s first innings total will probably end up being below par. With the likes of Alan Richardson and Neil Carter both injured and Graham Wagg representing England at Under-19 level, Warwickshire’s first objective was to put sufficient runs on the board for their second-choice attack to have something a bowl at.

The only bowler missing from the Surrey line-up was Alex Tudor, who, along with Mark Butcher, was told not to hot foot it to Birmingham after the Third Test. In their absence the triumvirate of Martin Bicknell, Jimmy Ormond and Saqlain Mushtaq turned in a thoroughly professional display. It seemed that whenever a wicket was required, one of them would produce just the right ball to get it.

Initially, however, it looked as if Nick Knight would hold centre stage, especially when he passed fifty for the seventh time in nine innings before lunch by pulling a no-ball from Ormond over mid-wicket for his tenth boundary.

Knight and Powell had dealt capably with the new ball, opening with a stand of 79 in 24 overs. The left-hander collected three boundaries in four deliveries in Bicknell’s third over. Michael Powell later drove the 33-year-old straight either side of the wicket for successive fours. The Warwickshire captain further vindicated his decision to bat by stroking two off-side fours in the first over of Jimmy Ormond’s second spell.

Saqlain was introduced in the fourteenth over. Ten overs later Powell, seeking to work him off his legs, fell lbw for 36; his most productive innings for over a month. The Pakistani off-spinner then claimed the wicket of Mark Wagh, who was caught at silly point.

After lunch Martin Bicknell took his 900th first-class wicket for Surrey and his fiftieth championship victim against the midlands county when Ian Bell edged a drive, which Jonathan Batty took just inches off the ground in front of Alistair Brown at first slip.

Warwickshire’s main protagonists, Nick Knight and James Troughton, were together for just six overs before Ormond cut the opener in half to claim a decisive wicket. Swinging a back of a length delivery into the left-hander, the ball took an inside edge and flew at shoulder height to the keeper. Knight had made 74.

Troughton went on to underline his potential with a fine 61 off 80 balls, but along the way lost Pollock and Brown in the space of four overs. Shaun Pollock, who was dismissed by Jimmy Ormond in both innings at the AMP Oval, was out to him again when the former Leicestershire man shaped the ball away just enough to catch the edge. Dougie Brown then skied one to cover, where Rikki Clarke took a well-judged catch over his left shoulder.

James Troughton was the joined by Tony Frost and in just over an hour they added 55 for the seventh wicket. Even with three slips and a backward point, Troughton’s most productive area was again behind square on the off-side, yet, somehow, he never looks like getting out in that region.

Frost, cutting Ormond and Bicknell, made the highest score by a Warwickshire keeper in this season’s championship, but not before Troughton, who fell agonisingly short of a second innings hundred in the last meeting between these two sides, was lbw to a ball of full length from Martin Bicknell.

Nine overs later Frost tried to work one through wide mid-on and was bowled by Saqlain Mushtaq. Giles then had his bails trimmed after playing an indeterminately at Jimmy Ormond, after which Mohammad Sheikh and Melvyn Betts played out the final eleven overs, winning their side a third batting point on a pitch that still looks to have more in it for the batter than the bowler.

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